Geniza Lab

State document. Dated: 26 Ramaḍān 524 AH = 2 September 1130 CE. A makhzūma (a type of official account) concerning the construction of a new or renovated belvedere (manẓara) across from either the Rawḍa island or a specific government garden (muqābil al-rawḍa al-saʿīda). Begins with the header "makhzūma," followed by, "bi-mablagh al-munfaq fī ʿimārat al-manẓara al-mustajadda al-maʾmūr bi-inshāʾihā." The project is overseen by officials with titles such as "majd al-khilāfa wa fakhruha" and "ṣanīʿat al-khilāfa." One may be named al-Qāḍī [...] al-ʿUmr (?) ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (?). They are both described as "mutawallī al-maʿūna bi-Miṣr." Al-Maqrīzī mentions this position during the Fatimid Caliph al-ʿĀmir's time in 515 H (See Ittiʿāẓ, III, p. 69). The date on the document is 524 H which fits with al-Maqrīzī's chronology, hence, it is plausible that the person referred to in the chronicle could be one of the officials mentioned in the document. Goitein translates 'maʿūna' as "a police building, although containing gruesome prisons, was called maʿūna, 'help' while the security forces themselves were divided into a number of specialized groups. The head of the police was called wālī, literally, 'governor'" (Goitein, Mediterranean Society, II:368). There are also copious other jottings in Arabic, most of them poetry and some pen trials. Needs further examination.

Document in Arabic script, perhaps a trade letter/document. Mentions sending something, probably a letter and milk "ḥalība maḥmūla", in the companionship (suḥba) of someone and some greetings. Verso has two diagonal lines in Arabic, probably remnants of an address.

Recto: Document in Arabic script recording the settling of a business account (wafāʾ), perhaps what al-Thiqa owed to Barakāt b. Salāma. Dated: 12 Muḥaram '47 AH, probably 447 AH, which would be 1055 CE. (There is also a Barakāt b. Salāma mentioned in Halper 468, an 11th-century document.) Mentions specific commodities (including al-kābulī = chebulic myrobalan) and many details about brokerage and agents' fees. Needs further examination. Verso: Accounts in Arabic script (different hand). Names (e.g. Abū Ṭāhir, Jawhar) listed alongside sums of money; also mentions 'simsār' or the trade agent/broker.

State decree. Three fragmentary lines from the end of a chancery decree, probably addressed to a provincial official, mentions majlis al-naẓar (refer al-Qalqashandī, Ṣubḥ al-Āʿshā VIII, 331). The text that remains is from the beginning of the closing section, containing the admonitions and the dating clause (which, as usual, hasn't been preserved). Reused for the commentary of Rabbenu Ḥannanel on Bava Kamma 98, 101.

Legal document, deed of acknowledgment, concerning an inheritance dispute between Jamīla bt. Lāḥiq the veterinarian and her brother. Contains three testimonies at the bottom. The document is dated to the first half (niṣf al-awwal) of Rabīʿ II 467 H, which is right after the shidda ʿuzmā (454 - 465 H/ 1062 - 1073 CE), testifying to the restoration of legal and administrative order in the Fatimid empire following the massive famine period. Needs further examination.

State document, Fatimid period. Dated: 4 Rajab 523H, which is 23 June 1129 CE. Reporting that two trustworthy witnesses from Alexandria had given testimony, and that a document had come in answer to their testimony. One of their names has been preserved: Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn b Ḥātim b. Ṣadaqa b. ʿUmar. Contains a registration mark (al-ḥamdu li-llāh ʿalā niʿamih). Another scribe has reused the document to copy the Fihrist of Shemu’el b. Hofni gaʾon. Details: An official document belonging to X (unnamed person: the هـ of kitab) was presented somewhere, but it needed to be verified, so two witnesses ratified it, presumably in Alexandria. The ratified document was then sent to a chancery where our writer recorded its contents, and equally importantly, registered the names of the two witnesses who had vouched for its authenticity. This is a bifolio register destined for the central Fatimid archives. Without more information on person X, and on the nature of this كتاب (was it a receipt, a legal deed, a rescript?), the document remains tantalizing and opaque, but useful as evidence of registration and archiving. Reused for the fihrist (index to the writings) of Shemuʾel b. Ḥofni (one fragment) and for Bava Metzia 49b (the other fragment: someone buying wine learned that Parzak the vizier was going to confiscate it, so he tried to renege before taking possession of the wine. R. Hisda approved: "just as they instituted 'pulling' with regard to sellers, so did they institute 'pulling' with regard to buyers"). (MR)

Contract of lease for an irrigation channel on the jazīra of Fustat (the Nile island later known as Rawḍa). Dated: 18 (or maybe 28?) Shawwāl 407 AH (March 1017 CE). The lessees are Maḥāṣin b. Sayyidihim b. ʿAbdallāh; Muḥammad b. Abdallāh; Abū l-Faraj b. Sayyidihm; Khalīl al-Naṣrānī; Sulaymān b. Maḥāsin b. Naṣr al-Naṣrānī. The lease is for a period of 5 months, beginning on 23 Shawwāl 407. The lessees are to pay 600 dirhams paid in 5 monthly installments (munajjama) of 120 dirhams. The property borders that of the town (Fustat) and contains an orchard of date palms, strawberries, sycamore. No signatures are preserved. Reused for Hebrew poetry.

Recto: An amulet or talisman for protection, beginning with a chapter on charms and protections "bāb al-ḥirz l-aʿẓam". Verso: Magical recipe or charm involving an egg, writing something 49 times on it which leads to someone's birth in hell. Needs further investigation.

Verso: Four (?) interesting accounts in Arabic script, one mentioning "wāṣil al-ḍamān". Dated: Jumādā II 513 AH, which is September 1119 CE. (Information from Goitein's note card.) Ed. Rabie.

Petition from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. [...] to Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin). In Arabic script. Has a tarjama at the upper left; 4 lines of introductory blessings; a report and request (wa-yunhī ilā.... anā rajul min ahl al-[...]... iḥṣānuhu maʿa l-khāṣṣ wa-l-ʿāmm... ); and a concluding ra'y clause and ḥamdala and ṣalawāt. Needs further examination for the content of the request. (Information in part from Zain Shirazi.)

Recto: the remnants of two lines of an Arabic chancery document with wide spacing, probably a decree. The first line reads as "من حياطة دينه واظهره لدولته من", the second line has a fragmentary ṣalwala. Verso: a whole page of Arabic that appears to be from a literary composition or prayer. The fourth line from the bottom reads من مشرق الارض ومغربها وسهلها وجبلها وبرها وبحرها ومع ذلك... (from east to west, from plains to mountains, from land to sea, and even so...). ASE, YU.

On recto, the bottom of a letter (official letter? formulary?) in Arabic script. The writer thanks the addressee in the concluding lines quoting two verses of poetry that are commonly quoted to express gratitude - ولو أنني أوتيت كل بلاغة*وأفنيت بحر النطق في النظم والنثر لما كنت بعد القول إلا مقصرا*ومعترفا بالعجز عن واجب الشكر On verso, two lines of poetry in Arabic script headed by a basmala on the theme of love for the addressee. Needs further examination.

Petition from al-Ḥasan b. Abū Saʿd probably to a vizier (several of the titles are similar to those of Ṭalāʾiʿ Ibn Ruzzīk). He complains of his poverty and weak state and seems to be asking for protection against the behaviors of the brokers in the drug/perfume trade in Fustat, who have cornered the market and are preventing merchants from doing business with the petitioner. On verso there is the qiddush for Passover in large 'childish' letters. (Information in part from Goitein's index card, MR, ASE.)

Receipt for 120 dīnārs from the account of ʿArūs b. Yūsuf for a shipment of purple dye or cloth (argaman) (information from Aodeh).

Recto: State report. 4 lines preserved. Mentions "Bū Kalījār the king of Ahwāz," probably identical with the Buyid Amir Abū Kālījār Marzubān in Persia (d. 1048). (Ahwāz is the capital of Khuzestan province in present-day Iran.) The document reports on a wazīr who arrived from Abū Kālījār and somebody who reached the province of Wāsiṭ. Three delegates (of the Turks?) went to greet him; he displeased them, and they in turn ill-treated him. Abū Kālijār is believed to have fostered very close ties with the Fatimid chief Dāʿī and courtier al-Muaʾyyad al-Shīrāzī in Persia, prior to his arrival to Egypt (See al-Muʾayyad al-Shīrāzī, Sīrat al-Muʾayyad fī l-dīn Dāʿī l-Duʿāt). Needs further examination. YU.

Recto: a medical prescription in Arabic for ʿAlī b. [..]Allah. Verso: scribal practice in Hebrew. ASE.

Private accounts of al-Shaykh Bū Ḥasan in Arabic script starting with a basmala and heading "ḥisāb al-Shaykh Bū l-Ḥasan". An example of the accounts includes., "I received 2 dinars minus 1/8, and 44 dirhams, and 5 fils." Then about 20 double lines of specifications. Some months are also mentioned without years.

State document, ending line of a petition containing the raʾy clause. The fragmentary line reads as "حضرته..رايه العالي في ذلك ان شالله". Hebrew liturgical text on verso.

State document, in Arabic script. Wide spacing, two fragmentary lines. Some of the words read as "من مساعدته....من ذلك في امره".

State document, probably a decree. The fragmented line reads as "واما ما ذكره من دعا الخاصة". Hebrew liturgical text on recto.